From the viewpoint of global environmental protection and energy saving, it has recently been desired to reduce the weight of transport vehicles such as aircraft, automobiles, etc. It has accordingly been studied to use aluminum alloys and/or fiber-reinforced composite materials as materials for their main constituent members. There has been a remarkable progress particularly in the development of fiber-reinforced composite materials for members required to have high strength, corrosion resistance and oil resistance as well as reduced weight.
Because aluminum alloy members are conventionally joined to each other by arc-welding, their portions to be welded should be formed thick to have sufficient strength, failing to sufficiently reduce weight. Further, with disadvantages inherent in arc welding, welded portions sometimes need be chipped and welded again, requiring considerable man-hours. Further, since high-strength aluminum alloys used for the members of aircraft, etc. are poor in weldability, rivets are used, resulting in increase in the weight and cost of the members. Therefore, a simple method for bonding aluminum alloy members are desired to reduce the weight of bonded members and man-hours necessary therefor.
Further, when fiber-reinforced composite material members are bonded to each other or to aluminum alloy members, they cannot be bonded by welding, necessitating bonding with an adhesive. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-264257 discloses a method for forming an integral fiber-reinforced composite material member using uncured prepregs as bonding materials.
However, to bond these non-magnetic members together, their mated portions should be pressed, and particularly when bonding large-size, non-magnetic members, a whole structure of the non-magnetic members should be fixed with a large-size metal jig and fastened by bolts, rivets, clamps, etc. For this reason, it is necessary to make a large number of through-holes in the non-magnetic members, into which bolts, etc. are inserted, remove the bolts, etc. after an adhesive is cured and then cover the through-holes with protective materials. This increases the manufacturing cost because it requires large-size jigs and considerable man-hours.